Everything old is new again in Toronto. It's hard to find a top-caliber guy mid-season and JFJ had to go, but...man, it just seems like the Leafs are doing things backwards again. So they're going to hire Fletcher to try and clean things up contract and cap-wise for the rest of the season, and then turn it over to another GM in the spring who may have different plans?
How you uh, how you comin' on that novel you're working on? Huh? Gotta a big, uh, big stack of papers there? Gotta, gotta nice litte story you're working on there? Your big novel you've been working on for 3 years? Huh? Gotta, gotta compelling protaganist? Yeah? Gotta obstacle for him to overcome? Huh? Gotta story brewing there? Working on, working on that for quite some time? Huh? Yea, talking about that 3 years ago. Been working on that the whole time? Nice little narrative? Beginning, middle, and end? Some friends become enemies, some enemies become friends? At the end your main character is richer from the experience? Yeah? Yeah?
It's the same old song and dance with MLSE. Fletcher, even though he hasn't done anything substantial in a few seasons, is a name from 15 years ago when the Leafs had a taste of mediocre success. So he's really a band-aid while the organization runs frantically in the background trying to find a long(er) term answer.
The thing is, at this point, there are no "good" gm candidates available. Fletcher is there to essentially not ruin the franchise anymore until a replacement is found.
I'm not saying that MLSE isn't a joke. Watch Richard Peddie basically lip sync Fletcher's speech from 4:46 - 5:07 in this video: http://youtube.com/watch?v=uyKQEKWURtI .